Welcome to Gaia! ::

He’d been catching up a little on sleep when he heard the person at the door. On some level he’d known that staying up so late at night would come back to haunt him. He staggered to the door rubbing his eyes and opened it, whomever it was was just going to have to deal with ratty sweats and a grungy t-shirt since they hadn’t texted ahead. If it was someone looking for a tattoo, well, they were going to get an earful to boot.

“Yeh…” He said by means of half awake greeting, and then blinked realizing who he was looking at. Long blond hair, SO much pink, ribbons and lace… there was really only one person it could be.

He screwed up his face trying to focus on her. “….Princess?” He said squinting.

“The ell? Come on in…” He stepped aside assuming that something was wrong. Why else, after all would she be here so –early?

“I…but…I was…” He stammered blinking. Oh god he needed coffee or something with caffeine and lots and lots of sugar.

“… Do I have time to get a shower?” He asked a little desperately.
No wonder his impromptu roomie was gone if it was so late in the day.

His room wasn’t much to look at save for the tattoo accouterments that he kept carefully preserved there. There were bunked standard issue Deus Beds, some ‘curtains’ made from cheep bed sheeting tacked both to the ceiling and hung around the lower bunk where he’d apparently been sleeping given one curtain was tucked back and the bed was unmade.

((There was a panda sitting in one corner of the bed, visible just long enough for him to realize you might be looking and slap the curtain down. ))

“Trust me, It’ll be worth the wait if you want me to look remotely human.” He told her.

He could take his clothes with him and –try- to wake up in the shower before he came back to the room.

“You’ll have to forgive the fact I stayed up late –working, I didn’t expect you without a little more advance Notice Princess.”

He tipped his head looking at her and arched his eyebrows at just HOW dolled up she was. It was sort of amazing to see the transformation.

He gave a small laugh and rubbed at his eyes, grabbing a towel and a change of clothes along with a bag of shower things.

"E kore e taua ingoa mona pakeke." He grinned and vanished out the door before she could ask what he'd even said.

He returned as fast as was reasonable, raking fingers through damp hair and pulling part of his hair back out of his face with a hair band. It made a little more of a mess of his blue streaks but overall, but it helped make him look less like he'd lost a fight with a blender.

He was now sporting khakis and a button-down shirt. "Better?" He offered, pulling a bone hook out from under his shirt so it lay in the open instead.

"... not adding lace, I'm making that clear now alright? I'm as likely to dress like that as you are to get tattoos."

“If you were looking for a Tux its not happening, I don’t do tuxes.” He shook his head emphatically and then grinned.

“I could swear some formal clothes to teach you the dance though.”

There was a wicked look in his eyes when he suggested that though.

“You know… I bet I could get Aropangi to wear the traditional garb too.” He grinned wider.

“And it’s the Haka, maybe you can look for a book about it while we’re out, though I doubt the Teddybear store will carry any.” He chuckled softly.

“The Haka is a Maori dance, You’ll do great. I bet you can even learn some of the words.”

“What… too primitive?” He said arching an eyebrow at her. “We’re not… noble savages, there’s a lot of history and culture to the Maori that’s being… worn away. It may not be lace and pastel ribbons, but there’s a lot of meaning behind it. I’m sharing that with you because I hope you’ll appreciate it. I know there’s a growing culture behind the style of dress you’re wearing too, so I hope I’m not wrong ‘Princess.’.

“…actually I think the Ka Mate… fits where we are.”


“Besides, I’d be sure to find you flamingo feathers so you could look a proper lady.”

“I did say we’d record it when we made the bear deal you know.” He said with a satisfied grin.

“But don’t worry, you’d be on film with myself or Aropangi, we’re both from new Zealand, if you like them tall and strapping you’ll LOVE Aro, might hate his dreads though.”

He yawned despite himself and hurried after.

“Besides, hardly an exhibition if it’s a known dance that they even do in front of the All Blacks games.”

"Why...Shy?" He grinned.

"“I didn’t keep you in the dark! I said after you demanded that the bear be bigger than you, that we’d record it after you learned it!” He folded his arms and frowned at her.

“You just forgot! You even said it was fine because you’d taken dance growing up!”
“I never once kept you in the dark, and its not like I’m planning to leave a copy on everyone’s door steps. Aside from which, it’s pretty rude to assume that doing the dance will make a fool out of you, that’s like saying every fighter or warrior the Maori had who did a Haka was dancing to make a jackass out of themselves.

“The only thing that might be amusing about it, is that you’re going to be chanting a battle peptalk and making fierce faces in a pink nightie. That’s like… the opposite look people think of when they think of the haka, but it’s still a good thing.”

He gave a chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, not like we could Google it here, but you WERE pretty excited about the bear, that’s maybe why you didn’t ask before.”

He tilted his head skyward. “Well… we don’t have to record it, but you get to do the fierce faces too alight? And that should let you relax about practice, we can perfect it after we get the bear, we have time right? You look smart enough to pick up on it pretty fast.”

He was only SORT of teasing. He thought she might learn it pretty fast just to get it done with, but haste wasn’t going to help.

“It is nice to have a day off ahead of us though, eh Princess?”